From now until April 24th kids can submit the games they make using a variety of apps such as Gamestar Mechanic, Kodu, Scratch, Game Maker, or some other platform. Winners in each category will receive a variety of prizes: laptops, software, etc.

I’m excited about the STEM Challenge for many of the same reasons I’m excited about kids learning game design skills. Not only does game design encourage interactive and social narrative self-expression, there’s also research suggesting that creating video games is a highly engaging pedagogical method for teaching the STEM skills that are necessary in today’s workplace--the same skills we celebrate in many of our most savvy business leaders.

Furthermore, as we make way into the digital future, it seems that coding--and the systems based thinking that coding requires--will shift from a subject of specialization into a primary subject of education. Luckily, the folks that are presenting the STEM Challenge are giving forethought to the this inevitable shift.

The Joan Ganz Conney Center at Sesame Workshop supports a variety of research initiatives looking to develop and innovate digital and game-based learning for children. If they can do for interactive media what their namesake did for television with Sesame Street, the internet will become a better place.

STEM Challenge also has an impressive list of partners including names like the AMD foundation, Microsoft’s XBOX 360, and the Entertainment Software Foundation. Along with their partners and mentors, STEM Challenge has planned a ton of events and hands-on workshops designed to teach the basics of game design. So, if your kid knows nothing about game design, that’s fine. He or she can learn...quickly.

I took my 13 year nephew to a STEM Challenge event at the Philadelphia Free Library last weekend. The workshop was run by Katya Hott, a content producer from E-Line Media. She was clearly an experienced teacher: articulate, enthusiastic, and fun. She started by explaining how STEM skills are involved in the creation of video games. Then, while projecting a Gamestar Mechanic game on screen behind her, she taught us to identify five aspects of games design:

Space

Components

Rules

Goals

Mechanics

Next, we applied these principles to “Rock, Paper, Scissors.” Katya challenged the kids to change some of the aspects of the game and see what happens. Their modified versions of the classic game were wacky and entertaining. I was particularly fond of the additional game pieces like fire, and water (complete with hand signals) that kids created.

Once the kids had the basics down, Katya finally let them open their laptops, directed them to a website, and they started designing games. My nephew loved it. On our way home, he said, “I’m totally gonna play with that website when I get home!”

A few days later, I spoke to Michael Levine, executive director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at the Sesame Workshop. He said to me, “there is clearly an over-consumption of media today.” So he's leading tons of research projects that aim to make screen time more interactive and educational. I think all adults would agree that we’d prefer to see our kids making things and not just consuming them!

Check out the STEM Challenge and encourage a young person in your life to start designing video games. Then encourage them to enter the competition. If you are anything like me, you will have a blast learning and playing along with your kids.